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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 6677770" data-attributes="member: 9546">The Open Web4 Lamashan, 4715 "Don't really like the look of that," Gnome-Brr Phive said as he looked over the edge of the web-filled pit and spat down into it. "Reminds me too much of home.""I agree," Zula said. "We passed a stairwell leading higher into the pagoda back in the hallway. I say we start there and see what's above us first."They climbed the stairs single-file, and emerged into another hallway wrapping around the perimeter of the pagoda. Tall black-lacquered screens with prancing dragon designs turned the corridor into a twisting maze. Boris took the lead, his sharp eyes easily picking out several hidden pressure plates in the floor. He directed his companions around them to avoid triggering the traps they obviously controlled. They had just made it to the first turn of the hall when he held up a hand again."Boris hear something," he said, cocking his head."I hear it too," Zula nodded."Footsteps," Phive agree. "Comin' from ahead of us and behind. Sounds like somebody walkin' barefoot."Boris quickly twisted a ring on his finger and disappeared from view. Just in time, as it turned out. Emerging from behind a screen just around the corner were two creatures, terrible to behold. A thick tangle of discolored entrails clung to the lurching skeletons' torsos and wound upward to loll from their jaws like clawed tongues. Boris took a step towards them, his blades in his hands. With his first strike, he reappeared, but he may as well have still been invisible, so fast were his movements. The creatures didn't have time to react. The twin wakizashis spun and sliced, striking vital areas with unnatural accuracy. When the little goblin finally spun away, both of the abominations lay in pools of their own gore. A shout from the back of the party caused Boris to spin in that direction. Another of the creatures had sneaked up behind Lucian, but the oracle had already put three arrows into it. A moment later, Haroldo and Mazael leaped between Lucian and the oncoming undead, and proceeded to hack it to pieces.______________________________________________________________Halfway through the screen maze, the companions came upon a single door set into the interior wall. After Boris pronounced it trap-free, Gnome-Brr Phive used his gloves to peer beyond it."Crap," he spat as he pulled his hands away."What you see?" Boris asked."More damn screens," Phive complained. "Only these ones are metal."Boris opened the door, revealing a large chamber. As Phive had described, metal screens depicting writhing dragons in bas-relief devouring hidden prey filled the room. From somewhere in the distance, metal clinked, like a chain being dragged, followed by what may have been a muffled scream. Boris waited a moment for Zula to cast a more powerful spell of invisibility on him, then began moving cautiously into the labyrinth. He paused when he thought he heard a shuffling footstep, and turned in that direction. It was only then that he felt the floor beneath him give just a tiny bit."Oops...," he moaned.From the ceiling above, a flurry of steel shurikens came flying out of concealed recesses. Boris tried to dodge, but there were too many of them. Several struck him, tearing through his clothing, and the wounds stung more than he felt they should have. He felt weak."Poison...," he groaned.He looked up quickly as he heard the footstep again, and found himself staring up at another of the horrid, disemboweled mohrgs.Haroldo had been moving towards another corner when Boris triggered the trap. He turned to look in that direction, and saw a pair of mohrgs looking back at him from behind another screen. Before he could move, the tongue of one of them struck out, snapping against his neck, and his muscles went rigid. He couldn't move! The second mohrg reached out and slashed at him with one clawed hand, and then wrapped its arms around him in a death grip.The mohrg didn't see Boris, but he could see it sniffing and tasting the air, searching for him. Before it had a chance, the little goblin drove his swords into its belly, remaining invisible thanks to Zula's spell. Reflexively, the mohrg's tongue lashed out, and miraculously, struck exactly where Boris stood, paralyzing him.Lucian rounded the corner and saw the mohrgs moving away with the rigid form of Haroldo. He rushed forward, a prayer on his lips as he moved. He reached the blood-rager just before he was pulled out of view, laying a hand upon his shoulder. Instantly, Haroldo felt the effects of the tongue drop away. Both mohrgs slashed at him, and then leaped away, but he swung at one before it was out of reach. Enraged, he charged forward, catching the second and running his great-sword completely through it.Mazael grumbled to himself, complaining about the stupid goblin, and having to always babysit the little rat. That was when he literally stumbled over the invisible rogue. As he scrambled to keep his feet, he saw a blur of movement from behind a nearby screen. The mohrg's tongue lashed him, and he was struck still as a stone.While Haroldo's attention was on his prey, the other mohrg darted past him, its tongue striking like a serpent at Lucian as he raised his bow. The oracle froze in place, and the undead horror moved in for the kill. Haroldo had no intention of letting that happen. As it raised its claws to tear out Lucian's throat, the big blood-rager cleaved its head from its shoulders.Mazael's mind was still alert, though his body would not respond. He focused on the image of Desna, and asked for her blessing. A burst of her holy power sprang from the holy symbol around his neck, momentarily freeing his limbs again. Raising Suishen, he made quick work of the mohrg before the paralysis took him once more.____________________________________________________Haroldo led Gnome-Brr Phive to Lucian, and the priest freed the oracle using the same magic that had freed Haroldo. In turn, Lucian released Mazael and Boris, though only after Zula's invisibility spell had worn off. When everyone was sufficiently recovered, they continued their trek through the metal-screen maze, until they finally came to a small chamber which lay in the middle of the larger room. Four great columns carved with depictions of dragons overlooked a gruesome scene: four gibbets hung from an iron column in the center of the room, next to a steep stone spiral stair that climbed to the ceiling. Two of the cages were occupied, one holding a Tian man, and the other a Tian woman. They looked terrified and half starved. When they were released from their prisons, they prostrated themselves at the feet of the Scions and began babbling their thanks. "You are safe now," Zula said calmly. "What are your names, and how did you come to be here?""I am Junzo," the man introduced himself, "and this is my wife, Udtsetseg. We were foraging in the forest when we were set upon by the spider-creatures...aranea. They brought us here and left us in the maze outside this room. Then the dead creatures found us and dragged us in here to torture us. Who knows what they would have done if you had not come!""Have you seen any other parts of this place, or do you know of any of the other denizens?" Zula asked. "We have overheard our captors talking many times," Junzo nodded. "The spider-things are led by someone named Akinosa, who lives somewhere above. They are apparently at war with hobgoblins who live below the pagoda.""Interesting," Zula mused. "Well, we will see you safely from this place, and we thank you for your information."Haroldo led the peasants back outside the pagoda to the garden. There, he left them with Miyaro, who agreed to watch over them until the companions returned. He then made his way back to his friends as they prepared to head higher into the pagoda to find this 'Akinosa.'____________________________________________________When Zula and Boris emerged from the spiral staircase at the head of the group, they found  themselves in a large, open chamber. Hundreds of stone needles and spikes jutted from the floor around them. A row of iron grilles ran around the perimeter of the room, providing views back down into the maze below. Thick webs swept upward from the jagged floor towards the roof some sixty feet above, ending in a dark and shadowy funnel  that sloped upward into the farthest reaches of the pagoda. On each wall, a round window surrounded by iron barbs looked out over the garden surrounding the tower. "More spider-people," Boris sighed as he looked up into the webs and saw the dark forms of the arachnid creatures...aranea Junzo had named them...scuttling around above them. As soon as he'd spoken, they began hurling sheets of webbing and raining magic missiles down on the companions. Zula quickly retaliated, stunning two of them with her thundercall and sending them tumbling down to the spiked floor. Piotr rushed up the stairs behind the shoanti woman and hurled a fireball into the mass of webs, immolating three more of the aranea and setting the webs ablaze. "Everyone stay close!" Zula shouted.She sang out a spell, and the familiar outline of a tiny hut formed around the companions, giving them a momentary reprieve from the aranea assault.Just as the heroes were catching their breath, all of the remaining aranea abruptly disappeared. Mazael quickly raised Suishen in front of his eyes, and they began to glow."Their coming into the hut!" he cried.On cue, the forms of the spiders began to appear all around the companions as they launched another barrage of magic missiles from point-blank range. Zula slew another pair with her thundercall, while Lucian picked off another two with his bow, the White Peacock Crown imbuing his weapon with lethal might against the shape-changers. Mazael and Haroldo lay about them with their swords, sending arachnid ichor flying in all directions, until the last of the aranea lay twitching on the floor.</blockquote>

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